Talespin: Police commissioner is not the answer

Monday, November 5, 2012

The Troy City Council will present changes to its changes to Mayor Lou Rosamilia's budget tonight at 6 p.m. and I'm hearing there is serious consideration of it adding a $30,000 line item to pay for a public safety commissioner.

If they do, then it's up to the mayor to pick a commissioner to oversee Police Chief John Tedesco and, as I've written, it comes down to two names: former chief Nick Kaiser and former Deputy Chief Tony Magnetto. In other words the Council members -- a few of whom are close with the Police Benevolent Association and in particular the union's president, Bob Fitzgerald -- can put the money in place to appease that powerful PBA but it's up to the mayor to pull the trigger and actually hire one.

Troy had a public safety commissioner a while back if you remember. Then Mayor Mark Pattison brought in Mark Whitman to oversee the Police Department when Bill Miller was chief but it was for the opposite reason that there is consideration of it now. Miller was too close to the PBA and Pattison wanted more control over the goings on at the department. Tedesco wants to shake up the PBA and change how it is run -- from the top down and not from the bottom up -- and the PBA doesn't like that.

We'll have to see where Rosamilia stands.

I've talked to some cops and I'm hearing morale is at an all-time low: there is Rev. Willie Bacote out there erroneously claiming to whoever will listen there is a spate of racism and rampant brutality going on by the police officers, the PBA hasn't had a contract in nearly two years and as I said Tedesco wants to shake up the tired and true way of doing things the PBA has dictated for years.

I don't know the answer, but I'm pretty sure a police commissioner -- or what is technically a public safety commissioner -- isn't the answer. It will do nothing but give the PBA more power and while I maintain 95 percent of the cops just show up every day and do a good job, the 5 percent who are trying to run the department should put their egos aside, not be so greedy, listen to the chief and stop playing politics with public safety.

The raises

Also in the Council's budget amendments will be the issue of raises to Rosamilia's top four appointees.

Just to recap, the mayor proposed increasing the pay for Deputy Mayor Pete Ryan from $80,342 to $85,000, head of the Planning Department Bill Dunne go from $72,450 to $77,000 while the mayor's confidential secretary, Kathleen Ryan Cassidy, would see her salary jump from $46,597 to $47,800 and the deputy director of public information, Mike Fraser, would go from $46,075 to $47,300.

I'm having a tough time getting a read on what the Council will do with this one but it will be interesting to see if it unilaterally strikes them all down, modifies them or just lets them pass.

Again, to be fair, the higher salaries were what the people in the respective jobs were offered when they were hired last year. The problem is, the lower salaries were what was allocated in the budget -- a budget formulated by an outgoing administration of a different party. Be that as it may, what is allocated is what is allocated without the Council changing it and they didn't -- yet.

Shot spotter

When the city first got the funky, high tech shot spotter for $250,000 I didn't understand the concept. Well, I kind of did -- it's a device that detects when a gun is fired. I'm not sure, but it really doesn't take a high-tech gadget to know if someone shoots at gun in the neighborhood.

Now, the question becomes what does the city do with it? (See below)

Health care

The Council tabled a proposal by the mayor to modify healthcare for retirees that would have saved the city some $850,000, and wisely so because it was put forth with little or no input from the unions or retirees.

I'm not against the city saving some $850,000 by any means but, from what I'm told, that savings is already included in next year's budget and that's a problem if the Council doesn't approve it at next month's meeting or maybe modify it somehow when they present changes to the mayor's budget tonight.

Maybe selling the shot spotter is one way to close the gap.

Election Day

Tomorrow is Election Day so spend the 15 or 20 minutes it takes to stop at your polling place and cast a vote. If it were up to me, and you didn't vote, I would fine you $100. But since you have read this column through I'm probably preaching to the choir.